Charles Fort: A Fortean Chronology, 1875.

The year 1875 (MDCCCLXXV) was a common year starting on a Friday of the Gregorian calendar. In the ISO 8601 calendar, 1875 is defined as the year the Metre Convention was originally signed, by way of a reference year.

January

• January 1: Midland Railway abolishes Second Class passenger facilities, leaving First Class and Third Class. Other British Railway companies follow Midland's lead during the rest of the year (Third Class is renamed Second Class in 1956).
• January 12: Kwang-su becomes emperor of China.

February

• February 24: The SS Gothenburg sinks off the Australian east coast with the loss of approximately 102 lives, including a number of high profile civil servants and dignitaries.
• February 25: The majority of the Yavapai (Wipukyipai) and Tonto Apache (Dil Zhéé) tribes are forced by the U.S. Cavalry under command of Brigadier General George Crook to walk at gunpoint from the Arizona's Verde Valley, to the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation, 180 miles to the southeast. The two tribes are not allowed to return to the Verde Valley until 1900.
• February 27: Newton Booth, 11th Governor of California, resigns, having been elected Senator. Lieutenant Governor of California Romualdo Pacheco becomes acting Governor. He is later replaced by elected governor William Irwin.

March

• March 1: The United States Congress passes the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits racial discrimination in public accommodations and jury duty.
• March 3: Bizet’s Carmen is first performed at the Opéra Comique, Paris.
• March 3: The first organized indoor game of ice hockey is played between two teams at the Victoria Skating Rink in Montreal, Canada.
• March 11: A vast, black cloud appeared at Guadalajara, Mexico. There was an earthquake. (Books772) 

April

• April 14: During the night 'cinders' fall from the sky over Victoria, Australia. (Books73)
• April 25: Ten sophomores from Rutgers College (now Rutgers University) steal a one-ton cannon from the campus of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) and start the Rutgers-Princeton Cannon War.

May

• May 7: The Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1875) is signed between Japan and Russia.
• May 7: The S.S. Schiller wrecks on the rocks off the Isles of Scilly.
• May 17: Aristides wins the first Kentucky Derby.
• May 20: The Metre Convention is signed in Paris.

June

• June: The record-setting clipper Flying Cloud is burned for scrap metal.
• June 25: Flashes that were seen in the sky by Charles Gape, of Scole, Norfolk. (Books434) 

July

• July 13: At midnight, two officers of HMS Coronation, in the gulf of Siam, saw a luminous projection from the moon's upper limb. Upon the 14th it was gone, but a smaller projection was seen from another part of the moon's limb. (Books441)
•  July 22: Small masses of damp hay fall upon Monkstown, Ireland. (Books 254)

August

• August 25: Captain Matthew Webb becomes the first person to swim the English Channel.

September

• September 1: A murder conviction effectively forces the violent Irish anti-owner coal miners, the "Molly Maguires", to disband.
• September 7: Battle of Agurdat: An Egyptian invasion of Ethiopia fails when Emperor Yohannes IV defeats an army led by Werner Munzinger.

October

• October 2: A man trundling a cart near Beringen, Germany, has his right arm perforated as if by a musket ball. His companions were mystified, whatever the missile may have been, it was unfindable. (Books460)
• October 15: Chief Lone Horn of the Minneconjou dies at the Cheyenne River, leaving his son Big Foot as the new chief.
• October 16: Brigham Young University is founded in Provo, Utah.
• October 25: The first performance of the Piano Concerto No. 1 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is given in Boston, Massachusetts with Hans von Bülow as soloist.
• October 30: The Theosophical Society is founded in New York by Helena Blavatsky, H. S. Olcott, W. Q. Judge, and others.

November

• November 9: Indian Wars: In Washington, D.C., Indian Inspector E.C. Watkins issues a report stating that hundreds of Sioux and Cheyenne associated with Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse are hostile to the United States (the Battle of the Little Bighorn is fought in Montana the next year).
• November 16: Battle of Gundat: Ethiopian Emperor Yohannes defeats another Egyptian army.

December

• Rio de Janeiro Observatory reports of vast numbers of bodies crossing the sun, some of them luminous and some of them dark - until 22nd January 1875. (Books221)
• December 4: Notorious New York City politician Boss Tweed escapes from prison and flees to Cuba, then to Spain.
• December 9: The Massachusetts Rifle Association, "America's Oldest Active Gun Club", is formed.
• December 25: The first Edinburgh derby is played: The Hearts win 1-0 against the Hibs.